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Connections to the Enneagram
Here, you will find our take on how our MBTI traits/cognitive functions stacking relates to our Enneatype. You will find that not all of us are 2s, contrary to popular opinion. The Natural Assumption: ESFJ = 2 Judging by previous facts & stats i've seen, it only makes sense that most of us fit under Type 2 (the Helper). So, yeah, your assumptions on this are more accurate than on us being bossy and stupid, haters ;) 2 is almost pure extraverted Feeling (Fe). They're concerned with other people's lives - Fe. They're nurturers and givers, very interpersonal and personal combined - Fe. They are in the Heart Center, which gives them a very personal take on things - Feeling. They're the most purely interpersonal and don't really have a sense of self - Je, more often Fe than Te because Te-people do have that underlying Fi, which gives them some sense of self-authenticity. However, it's harder to identify whether 2 corresponds with Si/Ne or Ni/Se more, which means the number of ENFJs and ESFJs as Type 2 should theoretically be nearly equal. So how about let's take a look at the wings... 1 is the definition of superego. Right/wrong, black/white. Si-users are much more likely to have that kind of mindset than Ni-users. 3 is about image, success, being special, being the best. The future-focus of 3s seems more Ni, but their image-focus causes them to pay extra attention to the established hierarchies and rules of society, which is a huge Fe-Si thing. It's harder to argue this one. A survey on PersonalityCafe in 2014 showed that, out of all the users who entered both their MBTI and Enneagram types on the site, 42.05% of ENFJs were Type 2 (either wing), and 39.5% of ESFJs were Type 2 (either wing). However, the ESFJs had many more people with wings - 8.64% of all ESFJs were 2w1, and 10.49% for 2w3, while ENFJ showed only 4.22% and 8.78% correspondingly. Let's also take into account the percentage of ExFJ people who are not 2w1, or 2w3, but actual 1s and 3s. ENFJ: 4.39% Type 1 (either wing), 11.48% Type 3 (either wing), 15.87% total ESFJ: 4.94% Type 1 (either wing), 10.49% Type 3 (either wing), 15.43% total So, it's victory to the ENFJs in contention for the title of the most common MBTI type under Enneatype 2. It was a close tie in practice, and an even closer tie in theory. Still, 40% of us who are into both MBTI/Jung and Enneagram are 2s, as the stats say. (Although the stats are just from people online who have put in both fields - but that's the closest to truth we can get.) That's still a lot, isn't it? ESFJ in Each Center Let's start with the Heart Center, because that's what you first think of when you think of a Feeling-dominant type. Feeling and Heart aren't the same thing, of course, just in case you don't know already. Jung's Feeling trait is judging things on a personal basis, while Riso & Hudson's Heart Center is being motivated by shame and guilt, traits of Heart dominance. Just to clarify! However, taking things from a personal view has a huge influence on your motivation, and it just so turns out that the ESFJ type relates to the Heart triad pretty well. Heart-based ESFJs feel inner shame, and either ignore it and focus on others' needs (2), try to present themselves as anything but what they think they are (3), or withdraw into their imagination and pain (4). It's not that hard to see that happening with our type. Now, we'll hop over to the Head Center, where our fear of un-safety, pain, and materials lands. I guess this is where the protective stereotype came from. 5 is arguably the hardest type for an ESFJ to land on, however, seeing that a lot of us get very emotionally and personally involved in situations while 5s like to sit back and observe. The simple internal/external focus should be able to throw you off and say that Type 5 is not ESFJ. But there are ways. 6 is common for us - lots of ESFJs like to remain safe and protected, while protecting others, hence the protective guardian stereotype. (I said lots of us, not all of us!) The Extraversion of 7 we can relate to, but not the strong Perceiving, nor the somewhat strongly represented Intuition. But there are ESFJs who have really good Ne. And besides, for most of us, we like to remain positive unless we're sure something might go wrong (a 6 instinct), and then we start being pessimistic and protesting that we're being "realistic", not pessimistic. Body Center is harder to pinpoint, as there are lots of ways we could/could not fit in to the system. We do have lots of anger and resentment, though, so this won't be too much of a long shot. Sometimes, we like to express ourselves right out loud (8), and we definitely don't like to feel "weak", although the latter is less strongly expressed than our emotions. Sometimes, we keep the anger boiling inside, and we work towards perfection/righteousness to go against our instincts (1). And other times, we want to just keep quiet, not mess anything up, for that we don't like things to change, especially our relationships with others (9). Always remember: Enneagram is about the central motivations, and Jung is about cognition. Even if it seems like we're all 2s, we've still got our own lives apart from the JCF system, and we have our own sets of values and motivations. In-Depth Analysis Type 1 - The Reformer Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced add info, ESFJ 1s! Type 2 - The Helper Basic Fear: Of being unwanted, unworthy of being loved Basic Desire: To feel loved add info, ESFJ 2s! Type 3 - The Achiever Basic Fear: Of being worthless Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile add info, ESFJ 3s! Type 4 - The Individualist Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity) add info, ESFJ 4s! Type 5 - The Investigator Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable Basic Desire: To be capable and competent add info, ESFJ 5s! Type 6 - The Loyalist Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance Basic Desire: To have security and support add info, ESFJ 6s! Type 7 - The Enthusiast Basic Fear: Of being trapped and in pain Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled add info, ESFJ 7s! Type 8 - The Challenger Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life and destiny) add info, ESFJ 8s! Type 9 - The Peacemaker Since i am a 9 and not any other type, i suppose i can only write my take on being an ESFJ 9. Gotta leave others' perspectives up to them, not up to me. Basic Fear: Of loss and separation Basic Desire: To have inner stability and “peace of mind” ISFP is the type most likely to score as 9, but ISFJ is a close second. With their tendency to procrastinate (Perceiving) and their desire to have things stay the same (Judging), it's hard to settle on one MBTI type. Wait, correction: it's hard to settle on anything, for 9s. The indecisiveness is a Perceiving trait, which would make you wonder...how do types with strong extraverted Judging act like 9s? The answer: they probably don't. Usually, 9s don't act like 9s. They're most likely to mistype, and will probably think scoring as 9 is a mistype for them, even. However, ESFJ is the ExxJ type most likely to score as 9, given the Sensing and Feeling traits. All three Body/Gut/Anger types are more based towards Sensing than iNtuition, and 9s are focused on real events, not imaginary ideas. (Even when they idealize people in their heads, it's for a reality-based purpose.) Feeling types are more likely to want stability in environment and relationships than Thinking types, because this kind of thing is usually from a more personal perspective. And the fear of "loss and separation" really does sound like a Feeling trait. Inner stability is hard to pinpoint here. Simply put, we ESFJs don't focus internally. But for me, it's like there's always an underlying wave of consciousness as i communicate with people, and i can't make that wave go any higher or lower than it is going right now. I put out conflict and turbulence unconsciously before i even realize it's coming towards me. And then, everything else is okay - it's like it never happened, whatever i did to keep the wave steady. Maybe this is how inner stability works for ESFJs - we try to keep the outside world as smooth as possible so it doesn't affect we in turn. The unawareness of self is spot-on for us, though. Fe-dominance combined with a Sensing preference is just not good for introspection. I see myself through the eyes of others, i can never see where i personally stand from my point of view. I can only measure hard facts (Si) and rational concepts for reference (Ti) in myself. There is no Fi here. Personal values? What are thoseeeee??? While procrastination is more common among Perceivers, it can be said that 99.9% percent of the human population procrastinates to some degree. Judging 9s are likely to procrastinate because they're worried that they can't make their work perfect enough. When they get down to work, it's probably with a mentality like, "Okay, i need to work on this and get it done, because i can't stand procrastinating anymore and i can't stand this WORK lying around." And that's true for me, at least! Living as an ESFJ-9 It's very complicated, although i like to think that it's simple. (Ha! Gotcha, little demon that wants me to believe everything is running fine until i can't believe it anymore!) Don't judge all ESFJ-9s by me, please. I haven't met anybody else who is one, and even though i like to think that i'm typical and everybody's like me and i'm like everybody, and i know that no matter how ordinary i am, having little demons in my head which fight each other all the time isn't very ESFJ, nor very 9. These little demons work for 9 motivations with FeSi thinking, however, which controversially confirms my types. I don't want to stand out and cause turbulence, i stay positive about everything, i do all the typical 9 stuff but in a very high pace and a very extraverted manner until i can't stand it anymore, and i explode. That's the reason i seem to act like any type but 9. I get very frustrated when people assume that i'm going to be "okay" with everything they say or do. And guess what? I am okay! Meaning, i lie to myself and i convince myself that it's okay, but deep down, i know it's not. But hey, my conscious side does not want to accept that one of my friends is being mean. So it says, "Naw, your friend is really nice, that was just one moment, you can forgive them, everything's fine, you are not hurt by what they said, no way! Keep going along with the conversation and it'll be all good." And it shoves the burden onto my unconscious side, which builds up a stream of magma of this load until it has to erupt. In social settings, i am very outspoken, counterintuitively so, when you think of what the "average" 9 will act like. But that's what i said before - i'm using FeSi methods (stating what things "should be" like, telling people off when they're being unkind, telling people "remember last time?" when i sense conflict, expressing my personal thoughts and emotions, getting emotionally involved in everything, etc.) to serve 9 purposes (keeping everything and everybody "okay", making sure there's no conflict, making sure things don't change, avoiding negativity, etc.) so i can survive in society, enjoy my time there, and help people too. My friends regard me as fast-paced, intelligent, outspoken, powerful, turbulent, unpredictable, funny, talkative, football-obsessed (soccer), geeky, passionate, skilled, clumsy, worried, and strange. I asked them what they thought of me, suggested the ideas above, and they agreed. But the important thing is, they see me as a good friend, and i see them as good friends. We get along, period. The end. Okay, maybe not the end. None of those words above sound very 9-ish, and that's it - if there's one Enneagram type my friends could say that i am NOT, it's 9. And then they won't be able to decide between any of the other types. What did i say before? 9s don't act like 9s. They also sometimes don't think they're 9s. At first, i tested as 2. Of course i did, having already scored as ESFJ and having already been familiarized with the MBTI/Jung systems. And i believed it, until i realized that even though the actions and appearance sounded really like me, the motivations were not me. And the Enneagram is all about motivation. So i glumly left 2 and went in search of another type. It had to be 9. It had to be. None of the other types' motivations were like me at all - what power? What individualism? What safety, even? Except for maybe 7, because i obviously hate to be trapped in pain. And 2 still did sound a little like me, because...i mean, love is a huge thing in my life, and it's easy to identify that with my ESFJ-ness. I knew i had a 2-7-9 tritype, but i didn't know which order. 7 was last, because i wasn't that optimistic and unpleasantness-avoidant. I was mainly just passive (that is, to the point i can't be passive anymore) and i tried to be kind to others. How was i supposed to know the reason i was like that? I don't know the reason i do lots of things. I don't do introspection very well, and it takes me a long time to figure anything out about me. It wasn't hard to decide on 9, because come on, i hate change. I hate turbulence. I hate being forced into something. I hate conflict. I want things to just be the same, be normal. No more drama - i've had my share of that. I would rather live a life of 0.000001% fun and 99.999999% sameness than a life of both great fun and great misery. Which is a huge thing to say. So i decided on 9w8>2w1>7w6. No biggie. Less than a week's worth of indecision. It's a bit strange, having both the sloth and the desire to have things settled. The two constantly fight in my head...actually, no, the sloth is too lazy to offer any arguments. Never mind all that. The bottom line is, living as an ESFJ-9 with VERY STRONG extraversion is very weird. Again, don't judge all others by me. I'm just me.